DAVID BECKHAM is pinning his hopes of a Premier League return on Sir Alex Ferguson handing him a Michael Owen-style last hurrah.

Beckham, England’s most-capped outfield player, is adamant there is plenty of life left in his 35-year-old legs, despite picking up a lifetime achievement award from Sir Bobby Charlton at BBC’s showpiece Sports Personality of the Year event in Birmingham on Sunday.

A handful of Premier League managers agree, with David Moyes leading the clamour to sign him up during the couple of months between Major League Soccer seasons in America before Beckham heads back to LA Galaxy.

In previous seasons Beckham has played on loan for AC Milan during this period and, with a 116th England cap still very much in his sights, he is eager once again to hone himself back in Europe during this period.

That, inevitably, includes looking at the Premier League, but not in much detail as Beckham is resolute in his aim to return with one club and one alone.Beckham, a boyhood United fan, served the club for more than a decade before he moved to Real Madrid in 2003 and, having spurned Everton earlier this month as “too close to home”, he has revealed that anywhere else in England also falls into that category.

“I have always missed playing in the Premier League since I left it eight years ago,” he said.

“It’s a great league and one of the most competitive in the world.

“Maybe one day I will come back here but I have always said that it will only be for Manchester United. I am not holding my breath on that one, but we will have to wait and see.

“One of the things I said I was going to say when I picked up the award on Sunday and then forgot was that receiving a lifetime achievement award is something you normally get at the end of a career.

“But I still feel that I am starting a new chapter. I still feel that I am playing well and playing on and can still do it.

“I have not finished yet. I wake up every day and want to achieve something. I have to be a good role model for my children and other children out there. I love the game and am not done with playing it yet. I might be 35 years old, but I still feel that I can play at the top level for another couple of years.

“I always try to prove people wrong. Sometimes I have managed it, sometimes I haven’t, but it is always something I enjoy doing. When people have criticised me or doubted me I have tried to turn it into a positive. It is something I’m proud of.

“This time, I won’t be going back to AC Milan because it is not possible to go on to the roster for such a short length of time.

“But I will be going back somewhere as I want to keep myself fit and keep myself in with a chance of getting called up for England again. To do that I have to be somewhere, so fingers crossed I can sort something out.

“My body feels great after my injury. I always said I needed to get that back into order and keep my fitness and we will see. It might happen, it might not.”

Beckham’s departure from United was under something of a cloud, with the former England captain making a point of showing off stitches in a wound above his eye caused when Ferguson kicked a football boot in his direction in a fit of pique during a dressing-room bust-up. The relationship between the two men was uneasy for a period but the rapprochement started when Beckham returned to his former club for the first time earlier this year with AC Milan and the player described his former boss as “a scary man, but in a really good way”.

On Sunday night, live in front of 12 million viewers, he went further, singling out Ferguson for a special thanks and endorsing him as the top manager in the game.

“For me, the best manager in football is Sir Alex Ferguson, who I still regard as a father figure after so many years,” he said.

While there is no indication that United are one of the clubs following Beckham’s situation, Ferguson has shown in the past that age is no barrier when it comes to signing world-class players.

Owen’s career was very much in its twilight at Newcastle when Ferguson made the shock offer to take him to Old Trafford and Laurent Blanc was approaching his 36th birthday when he moved to United in 2001.